CHRIS ALFORD’S 4000TH WINNER
Chris Alford has won most of the big races on the Australian harness calendar, but his recent win aboard Mapua Legend in a C1 Pace at Bendigo will forever be special. The $5,000 event saw the champion Victorian reinsman join Gavin Lang as the only driver’s in Australian harness history to partner 4,000 winners. The 42-year-old used 25,033 drives to amass his 4,000 winners, which consists of 3,988 wins in Australia, nine in New Zealand and three in Germany during the 1997 World Drivers’ Championship. He has also partnered 3,331 Australian second placegetters and 3,324 thirds for more than $27 million in stakes. His biggest victory came aboard Golden Reign in the 1995 Inter-Dominion, on which he also won that year’s Victoria Cup, while he has also won A.G. Hunter Cups with Paris Affair (1999), Mont Denver Gold (2002) and Sting Lika Bee (2007). Alford also shares the record for the most Australasian Breeders Crown final wins of six with Lang, who has now driven 4457.



CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK
Mark Herlihy, son of brilliant Kiwi reinsman Tony, is creating his own fame and continuing the dynasty in Canada… as a trainer. The 26-year-old is also the grandson of one of New Zealand’s greatest trainers, Roy Purdon. Add to that, his uncles are Barry and Mark Purdon. “I’m strictly a trainer,” he said.
Herlihy admits he was always destined for a career within the industry. “I got into it when I was young and after working in the family stable I came to the USA in 2002. I love it,” he said. Herlihy believed his immediate success in Canada stems back to what his family, especially his grandfather, has taught him. “We all learnt from the basics he set. Whether it is breaking-in babies or doing fast-work, to this very day I still implement the basics that Grand-dad drummed into me. “He was very thorough and had a hard work ethic,” Herlihy said. In 2002 Herlihy took up a job offer from former Kiwi trainer Brett Belling to help in his New Jersey stable. He worked there until 2004 before teaming up with American horsemen Steve Elliott and Ken Rucker. Then at the beginning of 2006 Herlihy transferred to William Elliott’s stable in Ontario. He currently works a team of 12. “I didn’t go out on my own properly until March last year. Actually in 2008 I had two wins from just 16 starters, but last year I had 35 winners. I was rapt because 67 of my 98 starters finished in the top three.” This season he has already equalled that figure.



BIG DAY OUT
Wow! What a day it was for 18-year-old Robert Morris who drove half of the race card recently at Menangle. Robert, son of Menangle trainer-driver Peter Morris, drove winners in four of the eight races on the day, including two Group One victories. His Group One wins were in consecutive races, being behind Excel Stride to win the Alabar NSW Breeders’ Challenge 2YO Colts and Geldings Final and then backing up to drive Bonnie Mahoney to victory in the Alabar Breeders’ Challenge 3YO Fillies Final.
Robert’s other two winners on the card were Greg Kelly and Tipsy Tollgater. The quartet of wins was his career best performance in just two years of race driving, and already he has amassed stake earnings of more than $1.1 million.



OLDEST AMATEUR
New Zealand’s oldest amateur driver, Graeme Jones, notched up his first training success at the Manukau Trotting Club’s meeting recently at Alexandra Park. The spritely 75-year-old was quick to point out it wasn’t his first harness racing victory. “It’s my first professional win – yes – but I think I’ve trained and driven about 20 amateur wins. It’s nice to get a tote win,” Jones said. Jones is based at Matakana and Porchini was his 10th starter to the races. Jones wished he had been involved in harness racing a lot earlier than he was. “I only got into it when amateur driving was established here in 2002. I absolutely love it. I train my own horses on a 400m grass track back home. It’s a hell of a mission getting to and from the races but it’s worth it,” Jones said. A former New Zealand amateur representative, Jones toured with the Kiwi team to North America in 2006. He’s driven at the Meadowlands and Yonkers and now wants to win a TAB race in this country.



AMANDA’S RECORDS
It has been a sensational season for the talented Amanda Turnbull during which she set a couple of records. Amanda recently became the first female driver to win multiple NSW Sires Stakes finals after she guided Just A Blue Chip to win the three-year-old colts and geldings final and Usane Flash in the two-year-old division. Adding to the feat Just A Blue Chip was prepared by her father, Steve. Amanda has also won more than 100 races this season, joining Ashlee Siejka who this season was the first NSW reinswoman to win a “ton” in a season. In turn her victories were part of a significant chapter of New South Wales harness racing when the last of the Sires Stakes Finals run and won. From next season, the Alabar Breeders Challenge becomes the exclusive state-based futurity series in the state.
First conducted in 1979, the Sires Stakes has produced some of the finest pacing talent to grace our racetracks, including Smooth Satin, Tailamade Lombo and Rowleyalla. During that time only four drivers have managed to win multiple Sires Stakes Finals in the same year – John Binskin (1981), Wayne Honan (1982), Brian Gath (1987) and Darren Hancock (2002). Now Amanda has joined that impressive honour roll.



FAMILY AFFAIR
Talk about keeping it in the family! Over in North America, the Marohn family achieved something that very few families, if any, have achieved at the same harness meeting. Both father and son drove a winning treble on the same race card. Jimmy Marohn and Jimmy Marohn Jnr competed against each other and both won three races each at the Monticello Raceway meeting. The 62-year-old Jimmy Snr is trailing 28-year-old Jimmy Jnr in the season wins – Jnr has won 51 at the track and Snr only 39. However Senior has now reined 5,209 winners (at press time) during his career. Jimmy Jnr is catching his dad though, having already won 1217 races at the age of 28 years. “I like to win races and if that means I have to beat Dad, so be it,” said Jimmy Jnr. Senior added, “I’m darn proud of my boy. And I’m not the only one who knows he’s tough to beat in a horse race.”



JOINED ELITE GROUP
Tasmanian Alex Ashwood has joined an elite group of reinsmen. Not only did the 16-year-old drive a winner at his first drive in a TAB meeting, but he backed it up later in the night at Hobart with a winning double from only three drives. What made the first victory even sweeter was that the winning pacer, Honest Art, was trained by his father Rod. Alex had only turned 16 five days before the race. “I was really nervous before the race but once we got going I calmed down,” Ashwood said. “I am quite overwhelmed. To win at my first drive is something you only dream about and that it was with one of Dad’s horses made it more special,” he said. Father Rod was naturally delighted with the result, saying, “He has been around this industry all his life and he’s done the hard yards leading up to getting his driver’s licence.” Later in the night Ashwood continued his record breaking achievements when he partnered The Innkeeper to victory to give him a unique double on his first night at the track.



DAVID FOWLER BRANCHES OUT
After 18 years at the helm, David Fowler has left his post as Queensland’s chief harness broadcaster.
Fowler started his position as Queensland’s chief harness broadcaster in 1992 when he replaced Terry Spargo and has called three Inter-Dominion series in that time. Fowler has replaced the retiring Wayne Wilson as the main thoroughbred caller for RadioTAB. His final night of calling at Albion Park was on 31 July where there was a celebration of race callers from around Australia. Those on track included Kevin Thompson and Fred Hastings from Sydney, Dan Mielicki from Melbourne, Jim Jacques from Adelaide and Richard Bell from Perth. Fowler’s loyal deputy Chris Barsby was also part of the action. The feature race on the program was the $20,000 David Fowler Appreciation Stakes.



ANOTHER STAR FOR LANCE
Lance Justice looks to have another star on the horizon. Three-year-old Tuhimata Glass captured the Group One South Australian Trotters Derby by a half neck but the winning margin should have been much greater. The gelding’s earplugs failed to release and Justice had to get to work close to home to hold off a late bid by NSW Trotters Derby winner Backas Cobber. “He would have won by a long way otherwise,” Justice said after the race. Tuhimata Glass will now contest the Breeders Crown 3YO Trotters Final at Tabcorp Park in Victoria on 22 August. The gelding won the two-year-old version last season.



AMY’S WIN
A win on Lugovoi Leis in the final heat enabled Amy Crossland to snatch victory in the 2010 Bullock Consulting Youngbloods Series in Tasmania. The 20-year-old Crossland was competing in the junior driver competition for the first time, and the last, as she is now living in Victoria and will be ineligible next season. She needed to win on Lugovoi Leis to take the lead on the points table and won by a neck over the fast-finishing Light The Lantern (James Johnson) with The Musician (David Medhurst) five metres away on third. “I was confident going into the race because, on form, he looked a class above his opposition,” Crossland said. “In the end, I didn’t even have to pull his ear plugs. He was a gem to drive, a real gentleman”. In a tight series, Amy finished on 42 points, ahead of James Johnson 40, David Medhurst 40, Brendan Gebel 39, Braydon Withers 39, Ben Rossendell 36, Melissa Maine 34, Bradley Wise 32, Justin Howlett 31 and Nathan Ford 30.

QUEENSLAND YOUNG DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Kelli Dawson hung on narrowly to defeat Chantal Turpin and Brad Cowen in the 2010 BOTRA Queensland Young Drivers Championship at Albion Park. Kelli finished on 52 points, one ahead of Chantal. And keeping it in the family Kelli followed her siblings Melissa (2007) and Trent (2008 and 2009) in taking out the crown. Their father, Geoff, is an astute trainer and their mother Gail is the sister of NSW trainer Peter Morris. Ironically the Dawson clan’s cousin Robert Morris was the 2009 NSW Rising Star Champion, proving that elite performance in competition is entrenched in their bloodlines.

USA TRACK CLOSES
Over in the United States Rosecroft Raceway closed operations from 1 July. Rosecroft did not apply for a harness racing operating license. A memo was posted on the Cloverleaf Standardbred Owner’s Association website by Kelly Rodgers, President of Cloverleaf Enterprises, Inc., stating: “It is with regret that I write you tonight to inform you that Rosecroft Raceway will be unable to apply for an operating license to continue in business at today’s Maryland Racing Commission. “Our long struggle is finally over and we have come to an end. Unfortunately, despite all of our best efforts we could not escape the unreasonable demands of the thoroughbred industry and they have succeeded in putting us out of business – their goal finally accomplished. “There is no doubt the domination of the thoroughbred interests on the MRC have played a large role in our death. Their conflicts and behavior are disappointing and beyond description but it is how it is. “Many of you have been in this struggle for survival much longer than I have and to all of you I thank you on behalf of all of our horsemen. Those of us who arrived late in the battle thank you for your hard work and want you to know we did the best we could. Our lawsuits will continue and, hopefully, sometime in the future justice will be done on our behalf - but that is for another day.”

USA STALLION FOR VIC
North American 2007 Pacer of the Year, Tell All (p,3,1:48.3; 1:50.3h), will be stamping his passport this year. It has been announced that the harness racing star will travel to Empire Stallions stud in Victoria.
Tell All earned more than $1.5 million at the age of three and was a North America Cup and Little Brown Jug winner. He was a season’s leader on both the mile and half-mile tracks as well as the season’s richest pacer.“Once we made the decision to send him it was a no-brainer to strike a deal. We are pretty adamant about keeping his book limited to around 175 mares down there and David is very supportive of that,” relates syndicate manager Art Zubrod.

NO WHIPS
The Matinee Championship Series recently at the Charles F Willis Memorial Racetrack in O’Leary, Canada, had one very important change. The harness racing directors at their annual meeting decided to institute a “no whip” rule for racing in the series. Reports from the track suggested, “It made for a more exciting afternoon, sounding like old-time racing, with drivers yelling as they urged their horses down the stretch. It was racing at its best, with a beautiful, sunny day and a well groomed track.”

4000 WINS
Larry Stalbuam recently won his 4000th harness race at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in North America. And to add to the success the winning horse, Mountain Air, is trained by his partner Kimberly Asher. The 46-year-old said he was very happy with the achievement, and  said in the winner’s circle, “I did it with lots of tired horses.” Stalbaum began his driving career in 1986 and now has won more than $US19 million purses with those 4000 victories. His most wins in a single season came in 2004 when he was in the winner’s circle 421 times.

AND AROUND THE TRAPS...

• Graeme White has been appointed chief executive officer of the Wagga Harness Racing Club. He replaces the outgoing secretary Pat Lodge who retired.

• Victorian filly Amelia Darling made a successful hit-run visit to win the South Australian Trotters Oaks at Globe Derby Park. She is trained by Cory Van Ryn and was driven by Damian Wilson.

• Sportswriter claimed top prize for harness racing three-year-old colt pacers, the CAN$1.5 million North America Cup, at Mohawk Racetrack. He returned a 1:48.3 mile rate.

• Adam Fairley has been appointed as general manager of the Albion Park Harness Racing Club. He started his appointment from 1 July. Fairley has been Harness Racing Queensland’s chief handicapper since February 2008.

• Newcastle/Maitland Club has been granted the honour to conduct the 2011 NSW Mini Trot Championship on April 23 and 24, 2011.

• South Australia’s premier reinsman David Harding recently dominated a Friday night meeting at Globe Derby Park with a 100% winning strike – driving five winners from five drives on the nine-race program.

• The 2010 Inter-Dominion heat winner Atomic Ark has been sold to connections of the Dennis Wilson stable and will do his future racing in Sydney.